Kabudi, World Bank hold assurance talks

Dar es Salaam. The World Bank says its relationship with the Tanzanian government is strong and has assured that it will continue to collaborate in different sectors of the economy, according to the ministry of foreign affairs.

The World Bank representative Ms Mara Marwick reportedly met and held talks with the minister of Foreign Affairs and East Africa Co-operation Prof Palamagamba Kabudi in his Dar office.

A statement by the ministry quoted Ms Marwick saying the relationship between the Bank and Tanzania is good as has lasted since 1960. The bank, it noted, will continue to support the country’s development plans through loans and grants.

“We enable the government in different areas and also work together in important issues such as development policies analyses, and this shows our commitment to Tanzania,” she said.

She said the talks with the minister cited issues ranging from education, infrastructure, economy, industries and human development. Speaking during the discussion, Prof Kabudi said Tanzania will continue to honour its agreements with the World Bank.

“I call on Tanzanians to ignore claims that our relationship with the World Bank is bad and only wait for official statements by both the two sides,” he said. “A lot has been said but most of them are not true and sometime it is not wise to answer every claim that is being made out there” he said.

“We discussed relations in the education sector, especially on girls education and promotion of human resources. We also discussed infrastructure, health, water and energy,” he said.

The talks have come in the backdrop of reports that the WB shelved a decision to approve Sh1.2 loan to Tanzania over campaigns by activists to force the government to reverse a move to lock out pregnant girls from school-rentry.

The loan has now been witheld twice as the WB and the government once again relooks at segments of the education plan that was the intended beneficiary of the loan.